511 results for tag: blog

Who Killed Jesus? – Greg Albrecht

It's high noon in Dry Gulch. Two lone figures are walking down the dusty street, getting closer and closer to their inevitable face-off. According to religious interpretations, God the Father is the good guy on the streets of Dry Gulch. God is the Lawman—the quickest and fastest draw ever. Nobody ever gets the drop on God. The bad guy? That would be, according to religion, you and me. God the Lawman has said “enough already.” He has called us out and we are approaching the gates of hell. Our mothers told us if we didn’t change our ways, we would pay a severe penalty. Our pastors and priests warned us about God’s wrath. ...

Kanzo Uchimura – Ruth Tucker

Ruth Tucker My Dear Teacher, Junki Chung. That’s the salutation I use when I write to a former student who would go on for doctoral work under Martin Marty at the University of Chicago. After that, ministries in America and Korea. Finally, a seminary professor in his homeland and inviting me to speak and to tour that beautiful land of the morning calm. The presentations were spell-binding, eliciting variously gasps of shock, sighs of sadness, and hearty laughter. I’ve never before or since held an audience like that. Dare I say, he was a dazzling translator who was able to transform an ordinary lecture into an electrifying oration. I had no ...

The Chain Gang – Jim Fowler

Jim Fowler For some there was the slight semblance of the synchophonic sound of church bells. But it was, instead, the clanging of chains as the prisoners performed their duties. Their day began with roll-call, responding to their assigned identification number. Then, dressed in the dreary uniformity that dissipates individuality, and manacled together in bondage, they marched out to perform their monotonous tasks. The obligatory service having been performed under the watchful eye of the taskmaster, the prisoners filed back into the vaulted dungeon to be fed a bland diet and to engage in the socialization of their chants. They were psyching ...

The Meaning of Life – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from March 2016 In one of my favorite Peanuts cartoon strips, Snoopy the beagle sits on top of his doghouse and forlornly ponders: “Where am I going? What am I doing? What is the meaning of life?”   #1 – we are born, we go to school and then, when we grow up, we hope to get a job. BUT is gaining knowledge and having a job the meaning of life? Teenagers and young adults often feel they will find the meaning of life with someone who will love them forever.   #2 – however, when young people get a little older many get a job, find the love of their life, marry and have children many discover ...

Connected To The Vine by Laura Urista

Have you ever read a familiar scripture and suddenly it’s as if someone flipped on the proverbial light switch? I experienced one of those aha moments when reading John 15:1-12. I thought to myself, “Hey wait a minute, did it always say that?” So I checked several translations just to make sure! In John 15:1-12, Jesus is talking to his disciples about the vine and the branches. I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.  You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ...

Now More Than Ever…Look Up! – Stuart Segall

When we raise our periscopes, we are reminded that the world churns and burns around us. We see that hatred continues to grow, and even the climate tells us other universal storms could be brewing. We may sing “what the world needs now is love sweet love” but we just as much need hope. I love the song below because it talks about the hope that starts with forgiveness. It points toward what we all need..." better days".  Did you catch the “bingo” in the message? “Hope starts with forgiveness”.  Otherwise, you just have a “ceasefire” which in reality is just an absence of war or fighting on what is likely, a tempor...

Amid the Brain Fog of Wartime – Brad Jersak

On Ash Wednesday, 2022, I write from a window-facing easy-chair, glancing over my laptop at the Northern Flicker pecking seed from a feeder, grasping for moments of stillness of heart. As an educator, I’m faced with the challenge of grading book reports and prepping lessons amid the brain fog of wartime, having spent an hour on Zoom on Tuesday, hearing the lament of a Ukrainian priest in Lviv between bomb shelter alarms. It’s hard to recall why what I do matters in the shadow of vacuum bombs and civilian casualties that have the stamp of approval from Christian nationalists. I’m tempted with despondency even as I recline in my place of ...

The Cross in David’s Confession (Psalm 51) – Brad Jersak

As I’ve stated in A More Christlike Word and previous articles, the Psalms often begin with what seem to be musical superscriptions. These ‘liner notes’ also frequently signal Messianic content, especially with the words, “To the end” (mistranslated “for the choir director” in many Bibles). “To the end” or “Unto the telos” is like a dedication to the coming One—the Messiah—who would fulfill the words of the Psalm as Israel’s Deliverer, especially through the Cross of Christ. The Psalm will anticipate a telos—a completion or fulfillment—an “it is finished” through the good news ...

Living a Life of Love – Greg Albrecht

God doesn’t need us to love him, but he not only takes pleasure in sharing the essence of who he is, he produces his very love in us, empowering us by his grace to pass that same love on to others, in thought and action. We are loved, not because we are particularly lovable, but because God is love. We often make the distinction that love is not merely one of many attributes of God. The Bible clearly defines God as love. Love is the essence of who God is. Some miss the point when they think that doing good things and behaving in a moral or appropriate way is the same as sharing God’s love. Our good deeds do not transform us into ...

A Cross Examination: No Christianity Without The Cross – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from March 2022 As they attempt to fill the emptiness in their souls, many citizens of planet earth frantically run after drugs, food, sex, achievements, possessions and entertainment. It’s been said the most frenzied attempts in human history in a quest to find and secure happiness have occurred in 20th and now 21st century North America. Ironically, the more intense efforts to secure happiness become, it seems animosity, division, hatred, racism and violence increase at the same time. From the beginning of history, humans have measured and weighed success and happiness through things that can be seen, felt and ...

The Easy Way Out – Greg Albrecht

Before we are allowed to enter the way of Life, we must leave behind all of the religious baggage and traditions that are so precious to us.Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)Many read these words and assume they know exactly who is on the road to destruction Jesus was talking about. Surely he was talking about the “eat, drink and be merry” crowd—those who are lazy, immoral and permissive. The broad road must be the irreligious “anything goes” ...

Grace Creed & the so-called “Old Testament God” – Brad Jersak

“THE OLD TESTAMENT GOD” A great part of my spiritual journey has been learning how to read Scripture in light of Jesus’s revelation of ‘a more Christlike God.’ More Christlike than what? More Christlike than I had reckoned, given the hellfire preaching of the revivalists I endured in my childhood. More Christlike than the literalist hermeneutics of my training as a Biblical Studies major. And more Christlike than my impressions of the so-called “God of the Old Testament.” Note that I’ve italicized the word ‘my.’ Out of my personal experiences, training, and impressions, I ...

Empathy – Stuart Segall

When you have developed your heart and mind to sense other people's emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling, you are defining, and more importantly, understanding empathy. When you empathize, in my visual, you become a tailor who weaves a magical thread connecting you to others. When you use it, a bi-product is you feel more connected to others. Primarily, when we empathize, we serve people by being compassionate people.   Empathy is a special trait and frankly, few have it.  Few can take the time from what they want in life to find the time to do this. In my work, I read the ...

Eden as a Metaphor – Ruth Tucker

Ruth Tucker I was recently interacting with an attractive, engaging woman—mid-forties, school teacher, twice divorced—who told me she had finished reading my book, Black and White Bible: Black and Blue Wife. She found the book thought-provoking, particularly my perception of the Garden of Eden as a metaphor for falling in love. She had recently begun dating again, and she felt she needed that warning. I write the following in my book about this garden paradise: My attraction to the story of Adam and Eve has found its habitation in the heart of imagination. . . . When I contemplate this Garden of Eden, this Paradise, I wonder if it is ...

Love – By Law or Grace? by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from February 2016 While she was in college in the 60s, Lisa wore flowers in her hair, burned her bra, smoked a lot of pot and had sex so indiscriminately her grandfather told her it seemed to him that she was having sex “with anyone and everyone, at the drop of a hat.” Lisa attended college in Berkeley, California – ground zero of permissive and promiscuous “free” love during a time of great moral upheaval in the United States. And Lisa often did have sex with partners at the “drop of a hat” – sometimes she discovered their names later, if at all. Her anything-goes-lifestyle did not end when she ...

Q&R: Baldies, Bears & Cursing in God’s name – Brad Jersak

The Punishment of the Children who Mocked Elisha in Bethel; The Widow before Elisha; Unknown; Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany; about 1400 - 1410; Tempera colors, gold, silver paint, and ink on parchment; Leaf: 33.5 x 23.5 cm (13 3/16 x 9 1/4 in.); Ms. 33, fol. 229v Question Greetings! How are we to understand the young boys in the book of kings who mocked Elisha's bald head and were mauled to death by bears. Certainly this could not have come from the Lord. Elisha had cursed them in the name of the Lord when the bears came and mauled them. Response You are correct. I think what you are saying is obviously true: CERTAINLY, this could not ...

What Does Real Estate Have to Do With the Gospel? – Greg Albrecht

From the Winter 2010 Plain Truth - Greg Albrecht For decades she put world leaders on the spot, skewering them with blunt, penetrating questions. But it was an outspoken answer she gave which forced 89-year-old Helen Thomas to retire as dean of the White House press corps. This past May, Thomas, a Lebanese-American who grew up in Detroit was interviewed by Rabbi David F. Nesenoff, a Long Island-based filmmaker. Thomas already had a history, describing Israel as a nation that “oppresses a helpless people with its military power and daily humiliation.” Responding to questions posed by Nesenoff, Thomas said that Israel should “get ...

“Lower the Heat” (assuming faithfulness in disagreement) – Brad Jersak w/ Floris Kersloot

The following are my takeaways from advice I received from Dutch psychologist Floris Kersloot. The topic was on how to understand and respond as peace-builders when faced with angry reactions over theological (or political) convictions. He who is slow to anger has great understanding but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.Proverbs 14:29 Even when (and especially when) sharing something so basic and central to Christianity as "God is love" or "Jesus calls us away from hatred into love," we often see people of good faith triggered into inexplicable anger and defensiveness. When our perspectives and opinions about God ...

Doing the Work by Ed Dunn

I’ll never forget her words: Good job, Ed, good week - you are really Doing the Work! My counselor’s words would ring in my ears from the time I left her office until I would return again the following Friday afternoon. My counselor’s office had become a safe space, one I’d grown more comfortable within with each new visit. Week-in and week-out at a set time and within that comfortable space, her reinforcing message was clear: Keep Doing the work! “A counselor?!” you may ask. “Why did you need a counselor, Ed?” That’s a fair question. As a follow-up to my last column entitled, Let the Past Be the Past, please allow me an ...

Rachel and Leah: Rival Sisters – Ruth Tucker

What if there had been no story? No Abraham and Sarah, no Isaac and Rebekah, and no Esau and Jacob, and no Rachel and Leah. What if no one had remembered? What if no one had cared enough to write it down? What if there had been no God of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and the ten generations from Noah to Abraham had never existed? What if there had been no creation and there was only chaos and the void? What if God himself was only a hole in the darkness?   Anne Roiphe, Water from the Well Ruth Tucker The Bible is filled with good stories. Here we focus on the rival sisters, Rachel and ...